The 18-year old Filipino-American light welterweight boxer Adam Bigornia Fiel, from Palo Alto, California will be competing in his first major tournament outside the US. With parents originally from Cebu and Manila, he seeks to represent the Philippines in the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing. Fiel will get a taste of world-class opposition, as one of the five-man RP team, at the First AIBA Asian Olympic boxing qualifying tournament beginning Friday, 25 January 2008 until 2 February, held in Bangkok, Thailand.
A light welterweight, Fiel along with flyweight Violito Payla, bantamweight Joan Tipon, lightweight Genebert Basadre and featherweight Orlando Tacuyan Jr. …read more

Here’s a good example of a positive unified effort, which can be said that is somewhat opposite of athlete mutiny. A relatively unknown sport, which can also mean that it’s not highly commercialised, ergo, no sponsors, ergo, no money. But how did the Philippines send a Women’s Futsal Team to the last 24th SEA Games in Thailand? Well, technically, they did at no expense.
Believe it or not, these women worked hard to get their arses to Games. And I don’t mean just the training here. I’m talking about raising the money and pooling funds they need in order to compete.

I just finished watching the movie, Stick It, on DVD and it somehow left me a question — is athlete mutiny really possible? I reckon I can do a bit of research to see if there were any recorded instances of that truly happening but I also think I’d throw this at you guys.
What happened in the movie was during a gymnastics competition quite similar to a National Championships, the athletes participating had violently disapproved of how a particular routine was judged then scored (I think twas on a vault event). They all believe the athlete deserved a 10 …read more

Just wanted to greet you readers of Light the Torch a happy Christmas, if you do celebrate it. I hope you guys are enjoying the holidays.
You guys still spending loads of time in front of the telly, watching sports? Dear me. Turn it off a bit and —
Enjoy the food! Enjoy the gifts! Enjoy your family!
Then you can go back to your sports again. LOL.
Happy Christmas!

Just a quick shout out to all Filipino athletes who competed in the 24th South East Asian Games, finishing at 6th is a great achievement! You make us all proud! You guys won a total of 41 gold medals out of 228 medals in total! Yay!
I know there are people out there thinking that this is the worst performance by the country’s delegates esp coming from the last SEA Games wherein we ranked 1st. Then comparing the ratio of the medal tally among those ranked higher.
I believe you guys did the best you could and will be open to …read more

I deeply apologise to all the readers of Light the Torch if you’ve missed a week’s worth of tidbits about the Olympics or any world sporting event. I’ve been a bit preoccupied with certain pressing matters that really needed my full attention. You do know that if I can get away from it I would, right? You’ve been around this part of the blogosphere long enough to know the I’m always here to provide you with what you like to know about this topic. I wouldn’t have stuck around for almost 2 years if I wasn’t.
Thanks for your continued patronage …read more

Worldwide TOP Partner The Coca-Cola Company has made a USD 2 million donation to the Hellenic Olympic Committee (HOC) toward the restoration of its site in Ancient Olympia, as it was severely damaged by the recent forest fires that scorched the Peloponnesus in Greece over the summer.
Source: olympic.org
USD $2 Million is no joke. Ask b5media. You can do a lot of things with that kind of money. It pays to have a big time supporter, yeah? The legacy destroyed by natural calamity is a something worthwhile — “The Coca-Cola Company, as the longest and continuous partner of the Olympic Games …read more

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS — Veteran Harry Tañamor showed no ill-effects of a weeklong layoff as he outclassed Nasir Mohammed of Wales, 24-5, Sunday in the International Amateur Boxing Association World Championships here.
Earlier, lightweight Genebert Basadre whipped Faraj Al-Matboli of Jordan, 29-7, to join Tañamor and flyweight Violito Payla in the round of 16 at the University of Illinois-Chicago Pavilion.
Light flyweight Tañamor, Basadre and Payla of the RP-PLDT-Smart boxing team only have to beat their respective rivals on Wednesday to join the list of quarterfinalists who will get automatic berths to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Source: Inquirer
It’s always fantastic to learn about news …read more

“I was really starting to feel like I couldn’t skate anymore,” the Olympic gold medallist said Sunday at the Olympic Oval. “Basically, I lost my mojo.”
“I’ve been trying to make my skating better and more efficient and have basically taken about 8,000 steps backwards. Not intentionally, but that’s what’s happened.”
Source: The Canadian Press
35-year old Canadian Speedskater Clara Hughes won the gold during the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin. She also has other medals under her belt but it seemed like even for someone like her, an athlete can actually lose their ‘mojo’ as what she called it.
It’ll either be …read more

It’s been a while since I last had someone guest blog over at The Watering Hole but I guess this issue about Marion Jones’ Doping Guilt caused our very own b5media Business blogger Rico Mossesgeld of Contract Worker to question an athlete’s integrity whereas I only thought of the medals.
Rico raised a good point. Not that it has never been raised on every drug scandal, but I reckon the subject gets easily dropped in most conversations. I think we need to continue talking about it. Let’s raise awareness and call these athletes out. As sports fans, we believe in a …read more